Republicans want NC absentee ballots returned in the wrong envelopes to be rejected

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The state Board of Elections on Monday rejected state and national Republicans’ challenges to rules for absentee ballots and voter ID.

The  Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, the NC Republican Party, and a Pasquotank County voter want county boards of elections to reject absentee ballots if they arrive in the wrong envelope. They also object to procedures for verifying that names on voter IDs are “substantially equivalent” to the name contained in the voter’s voter registration record. Republicans claimed that procedures the state elections officials told counties to follow conflict with state statutes.

Republicans raised two issues with absentee ballots returned in the wrong envelopes.

With the initiation of the voter ID requirements, absentee ballots are now sent to voters with two envelopes. The law was written when voters were required to return only one envelope with their absentee ballot, a state Board lawyer explained.

County boards were told not to reject ballots that are returned in the wrong envelope or in the sleeve that’s used for photo ID documentation.

Board members unanimously rejected this GOP wrong-envelope complaint.

State law on absentee ballot envelopes does not match the voter ID law, said Stacy “Four” Eggers IV, a Republican board member.

“I don’t think I can agree with the declaratory judgment request,” he said. “It could be a statutory fix.”

The board split 3-2 along party lines on whether two absentee ballots mailed to the same address but returned in the wrong envelopes should be counted.

Both absentee ballots and their envelopes are numbered. The ballot numbers and the numbers on the envelope they’re returned in are supposed to match. But it could be that a married couple or a mother and daughter receiving absentee ballots at the same address accidentally switch return envelopes.

Eggers wanted the county boards of election in those cases to contact voters to confirm their intent or to discard and reissue the  ballots.

Democrats on the board disagreed.

“It happens so rarely, it’s important we give credence to the intent of the voter,” said Board Chairman Alan Hirsch. “I would rather make this less complicated than more.”

An in-person voter ID rule instructs poll workers to consider reasonable explanations for differences between names on IDs  compared to names on voter rolls.

The  GOP complaint said the rule interprets the law too broadly.

The board unanimously rejected the complaint.

Board member Siobhan Millen, a Democrat, said she worried about women who change their names after marriage.

“The rule is an extra clarification to the voter ID law,” she said. “Without it, election officials would be more at sea as to what they’re looking at.”